NRCC

On Monday, John Heilemann told the Morning Joe crew "When you have a moment that becomes the fodder for universal late night comedy-- the kind of thing that everybody, even the most apolitical Americans understand-- that's a devastating moment... Even Trump, I think, has finally started to hear from enough Republicans-- 'Dude, you are killin' us. You are killing yourself politically and not only are you killing yourself but you are killing us. We could lose the Senate; we could lose the White House; we could lose it all'...

Van Drew was always a Republican-- and now it's officialIn the 2018 cycle, conservative then-"Democrat" Jeff Van Drew wasn’t one of the party’s star fundraisers, although he did bring in $1,881,731, despite a very right-wing voting record in the Jersey state legislature. The 3 other successful challengers in New Jersey that year all did significantly better than Van Drew did:

HR-1 was supposed to be Pelosi's big reform legislation to start off her new speakership. No one imagined #MoscowMitch would ever allow a vote in the Senate, so HR-1 will never be enacted until the Democrats take back the Senate-- and the White House. It takes some necessary steps towards reform, but not nearly enough.

Yesterday, House Democrats-- without buy-in from any of the Democrats' conservative establishment leadership-- voted against Al Green's resolution to begin a formal investigation into impeaching Trump by sending his resolution to the Judiciary Committee to die. The Republicans and the Pelosi-faithful voted 332-95 against impeachment.

Emmer and Bustos-- 2 clueless DC losers attached at the hipYou may have noticed that around DWT, Cheri Bustos and the DCCC aren’t exactly our favorites. In fact, I fear that the opportunity Democrats have to pick up another 50 seats is going to be blown because Bustos is the most ideologically-oriented DCCC chair in history, worse even than Rahm Emanuel, her mentor, and Steve Israel.

The GOP defeat was so stunning and so overwhelming that HALF of these 10 random losing incumbents didn't even get into the NRCC Patriot ProgramThe NRCC Patriot Program-- which is charged with protecting vulnerable Republican incumbents-- was a total hot mess last year. Of the 30 members included in the program, 20 were defeated.

How do you replace Michele Bachmann-- in Minnesota's reddest district? Bachmann's old district (MN-06)-- in St. Cloud and the exurbs north and west of Minneapolis-- has a PVI of R+12. Democrats win the state but Obama lost MN-06 twice and Hillary was crushed there-- with just 33.2% of the vote. When Bachmann was forced into retirement after serious ethics charges, the GOP was determined tp find someone even further right than her.

MI-08 is an iffy seat for a Democrat to win without a wave. But this cycle there is a wave. The R+4 district includes Democratic Ingraham County (Lansing), Republican Livingston County and then red parts of Oakland County. in the suburbs north of Detroit. Although Obama won the district in 2008, Romney took it in 2012 and Trump beat Hillary 50.6% to 43.9%. The incumbent, Mike Bishop, was majority leader of the Michigan state Senate but has been a hapless, anonymous backbencher in Congress, a Trump rubber-stamp and enabler.

Two weeks ago we took a quick peak at how the NRCC had begun the triage process. I completely forgot serial loser Danny Tarkanian. Tarkanaian started running for office in 2004, when he ran for state Senate. He lost. Two years later he ran for Secretary of State. He lost. Then it was U.S. Senate in 2010, He lost.

The governing philosophy of the DCCC-- which just has to change-- is that the Democratic Party can only be the lesser of two evils. Anything better than that will alienate the powerful Republican wing of the party (the Blue Dogs, New Dems, "ex"-Republicans and fellow travelers). So the congressional party stands for... not much. Earlier you may have seen the meme up top that Ro Khanna posted.